Perkiomen's Kriebel Hall Heavily Damaged In Blaze No Students Or Faculty Are Injured

April 18, 1994|by CHRISTOPHER ELSER, The Morning Call

Kriebel Hall, the original building of the prestigious Perkiomen School in Pennsburg, was heavily damaged in a 12-alarm fire last night.

The original structure, built in 1875, was gutted, while the fire damaged the upper portion of the front of the wood-and-brick building, which serves as the administration offices and a dormitory, fire officials said. The front portion was added on the house in 1904.

About a dozen firefighters were treated for smoke inhalation, but no students or faculty members were injured, Perkiomen School Head Master George Allison said.

"The timing was lucky," Allison said. "It was discovered at 5:30, , when we go to dinner and it was a Sunday, so many of our students hadn't returned from the weekend."

Seventy students and 15 faculty members live in the four-story building, which is on Seminary Avenue in Pennsburg.

Many of the students will stay with faculty members or in the other three dorms, Allison said. He also said the Hill School in Pottstown had offered to house some of the students.

A faculty member smelled smoke and discovered the fire in a storage closet around 5:30 p.m. The building's heat and smoke detection system called the Pennsburg Fire Company, which called in companies from Bucks and Montgomery counties. About 250 firefighters from at least 15 different companies responded.

More than five hours after the fire was reported, the upper floors of the building were still flaring up with hot spots. Fire officials did not expect to find the cause of the blaze for some time.

Pennsburg Fire Chief Scott Seip said low water pressure and the age of the structure made the fire- fighters job difficult.

"There's a lot of cubby holes and crawl spaces throughout the building," Seip said. "That makes it difficult to control (the fire)."

The streets in the area were blocked as the firefighters brought in extra pumpers to supply water. Water pressure was low throughout the evening.

"We were having problems with pressure all day," Seip said. "Those cannons shoot 1,000 gallons a minute and we have eight of them going at one time."

Allison, members of the faculty and firefighters entered the building several times to save documents and transcripts from the lower floors.

Records for current and past students were removed as were the transcripts of the senior class and trustee information, Allison said.

"The most important thing is all the kids are accounted for and all the (faculty) are accounted for," he said. Classes will be canceled today, "but we will have business as usual Tuesday morning," he said.

Many of the records of alumni were lost, although school officials attempted to cover the computers and other files.

"This is the time now to call on our school and community family to help restore not just the physical plant but the memories," Alumni Director Larry G. Edwards said. "We will carry on."

School officials said the school will still host a debate among the five candidates for the 15th Congressional District race. The event will be held in Kehs Hall, directly across the street from the fire-damaged building, at 8 p.m. today.

Hundreds of area residents flocked to the the campus to see the fire, which spread smoke over the Upper Perkiomen Valley for several hours. The smoke was visible for several miles.

Many students and faculty watched stunned. Many were teary-eyed and hugged each other.

For Ryan Gerhold of East Greenville and Ian Wood of Red Hill, the building was an important part of their education at Perkiomen School.

"You go in the rooms and you get a memory of the past," said Gerhold, a member of the class of 1995.

"It's the original building. It's basically the Perkiomen School," said Wood, a 1992 graduate. "It's the first place people see and their first impression of the school.

Kriebel Hall was damaged by fire in October 1968, when fire swept through the upper two floors. The school's students were at dinner during that fire as well.

The building was named for Dr. O.S. Kriebel, an early headmaster.

Perkiomen School was founded in 1875 by Charles Wieand. It was for residents of the Upper Perkiomen Valley, but today draws about 200 students from all over the world.